Tirimo’s playing is often compared to that of pianists such as Claudio Arrau, Arthur Rubinstein and Artur Schnabel. Born into a musical family in Cyprus, he began piano and violin lessons with his father, a conductor and violinist. He gave his first concert at the age of 6, performed Joseph Haydn’s “Concerto in D” at 8 and when just 12-years-old, he conducted seven complete performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata.” At the age of 13, Tirimo and his family moved to London where he continued his education. At 16, Tirimo won the Franz Liszt Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the highest honors, after which he completed his studies in Vienna. In 1971 and 1972, victories at international piano competitions in Munich and Geneva launched his international career.

His repertoire is enormous, including 80 concertos. Among Tirimo’s more than 50 recordings are the two Chopin concertos with the Philharmonia, the two Johannes Brahms concertos with the London Philharmonic and a CD of Sergei Rachmaninov’s “Concerto No. 2” and “Paganini Rhapsody” with the Philharmonia, for which he received a Gold Disc in 1994. Tirimo is particularly renowned for his Schubert interpretations, and in 1975, he became the first pianist to perform a complete cycle of the 21 sonatas in public, with his own completions to the unfinished movements.

The ICM’s 2016-17 concert season will conclude on Sunday, April 30, with a concert by ICM Orchestra starting at 4 p.m. in Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the University’s Parkville Campus. The concert will include a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” (“Concerto in C Minor for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra”), featuring pianist and ICM artist-in-residence Behzod Abduraimov, and Keith Benjamin on trumpet. Admission to this concert is free.

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